“Oh my, my, the news was really true?” A woman’s elegant, melodious voice broke the silence as everybody saw a pretty, graceful woman looking in her late thirties dressed in dark red attire coming down the steps.
And beside her, there was a beautiful petite woman with long, voluminous ruby hair, “Mother, it seems the meanie consort is already challenging the 5th summoning. Is Silvia dreaming?”
“Warden Naida and Warden Silvia…” The people mumbled upon seeing the two come down. They knew both these women were the Floor Wardens of the 4th and 2nd floor, respectively.
However, they weren’t surprised these big shots came down since who would want to miss the sight of the royal consort taking down these demon spirits like they were nothing? They surely must have got the news already and came to personally watch.
Their gazes immediately turned back towards the chamber when the demon spirit from the 5th summoning manifested fully.
Most of them gasped upon seeing a large and powerful snake with steely red scales and skin while having blazing eyes and hot red fangs. It had a triangular head, backward curved sharp teeth, and a prehensile tail. And its massive size of 20 feet long body was enough to tower over Asher as it raised its upper half. The thickness of its body made it seem as if it could swallow a person easily and was also enough to make people realize that there was no way of seriously injuring it without getting killed.
*HISSSS!!!*
It let out a menacing hiss as it stared at Asher, who had his eyes closed.
The reason he closed his eyes was that he received a pop-up in his head just like he did for previous summonings,
[ The Chamber of Hell has summoned a spirit named Lubac, the Harbinger of Agony. Stare at his eyes, and it will be the last thing you will see ]
𝞸𝐯𝐋𝐞xt.𝑐𝗈𝚖
Asher could tell that it was the Chamber of Hell who sent this message to his head but he knew it was not kind enough to provide a warning but to induce despair in him.
After all, this basically means he would have to fight this thing blindly. Fortunately, scenarios like this weren’t really foreign to him, and he simply closed his eyes when the spirit fully manifested.
“Isn’t that the infamous Lubac? My mother told me how she had nightmares for years after seeing it kill one of the geniuses when she was in the tower.”
“Who wouldn’t have nightmares? This thing is too merciless. I heard it wouldn’t grant a quick death but destroy your mind first and then your body.”
“I don’t think he can survive Lubac. That thing will turn him into a molten mess if he merely looks at his eyes.”
“But at this point, even if he dies, he will at least be remembered for passing the 4th summoning despite being crippled for so long.”
Rebecca was now fully confident in seeing his mind and flesh turn into a molten mass. Does he really think closing his eyes would save him? That thing can play with one’s mind to manipulate them into opening their eyes. It gains strength from feeding on the misery of one’s soul. Even if it doesn’t manage to, it will simply eat him alive, thus granting him a very painful death.
Even she only managed to defeat it by using her keen senses but not without getting some of her bones crushed.
“Hisss…closing your eyes won’t save your life, boy,” Lubac hissed as it wrapped his tail slowly around Asher’s legs but didn’t squeeze.
Asher continued to remain still as he took out his Blade of Damnation.
“That flimsy blade isn’t going to save you, but I can provide you the salvation you want. I can feel the pain and misery in your soul. Open your mind to me, and I will grant you peace,” Lubac hissed as it tried to seduce Asher into opening his eyes.
Asher felt its words vibrating in his mind, urging him to open his eyes and let go of his pain by giving in to it.
But unlike what Lubac thought, Asher didn’t want to let go of his pain. He wanted to always hold on to it so that he would never forget what he suffered and the ones who caused it.
Even though he had his eyes closed, he could feel the fiery gaze of Lubac. He simply raised his ring blade towards its eyes and said calmly, “I don’t want peace, but you can have it by looking at this.”
Lubac unconsciously shifted his gaze towards Asher’s weapon, and on the metallic surface of the dark green metal, he saw the reflection of his own fiery glowing eyes.
“NOO!!! HISSS!!!” Lubac howled in horror as if it was experiencing a nightmare, but the next moment its entire body became petrified. And what followed was its skin hardening and turning into a molten mass starting from its head and slowly spreading over its entire body till it became a molten hot statue.
Everybody had their jaws slack upon seeing the monstrous serpent Lubac turning into a molten statue, and the next moment the statue turned into ashes and disappeared into nothingness.
Rebecca took a step back unconsciously as if she was shaken by what she just saw. Her eyes were visibly shaking as she looked at Asher, patting away the dust on his robes.
Darren swallowed his saliva upon seeing the royal consort pass the 5th summoning. This meant that his talent or his bloodline was not low-born at all! At this point, even if Asher didn’t ask him, he was willing to beg him to take him in as his vassal.
“What in the name of the devils is going on…” An aloof, cold voice of a woman echoed subtly as people noticed a pretty, mature woman looking in her forties with a cold face and long silver hair coming down the stairs, along with a handsome young man with long silver hair, both dressed in black attire.
Who wouldn’t know these two who were part of the main family of House Thorne? Esther Thorne was the Floor Warden of the 5th floor while Edmund Thorne was here to train till he was ready to finish the sixth floor’s trial. Once he does that, he would be eligible to hold even more power in the kingdom.
However, right now, Edmund Thorne’s eyes narrowed in annoyance upon seeing the attention Asher was getting from everyone in the hall. Even the Head Warden was here personally to spectate his trial.
It already took him a lot to digest the fact that Asher was no longer a cripple when he heard the news. He still didn’t want to believe it but now, seeing him defeat Lubac without even getting a scratch-made him clench his fists. Even he had to struggle to defeat that thing, and this lowlife made it look so easy. How in the hell could this happen?
“Mother, can you make sense of this?” He asked his mother with a clenched jaw.
Esther Thorne shook her head briefly with a narrowed gaze and said, “If we can find out how he managed to not be a cripple anymore and who trained him, then we might be able to make some sense of what we are looking at.”
“Fu, fu, it seems like we underestimated him way too much,” Sabina said with a chuckle as she waved her hand fan and mumbled inwardly, ‘How did you manage to evade my eyes…Asher…’
“He has quite the presence of mind. Lubac’s greatest weakness is its own eyes,” Duncan Doru commented. However, his keen eyes took a good look at the ring blade Asher was holding.
Eradicator silently nodded in agreement and wondered if there was a reason the royal consort was soulless all these years yet was a hidden genius all this time. And more importantly, was this the reason the late demon king took him in and married him to his daughter?
She wasn’t the only one who had this thought.
“Looks like we found the reason why you couldn’t make him play with you, daughter,” Naida Valentine softly commented to Silvia, who pouted with an indignant look, “This is so unfair. He had been hiding things from this lady. I want to try again, hmph.”
Duncan Doru stepped forward as he looked at Asher and said, “Asher, you have proved yourself successfully by getting here. By surviving the 5th summoning, it’s already proven that your bloodline, including your talent, is superior to most. You may come out and still collect great rewards.”
Asher smiled as he walked towards one side of the glass wall and said, “Head Warden, I appreciate your words, but I barely got my warmup. As I said before, I don’t plan to come out unless I fall,” Asher already had no plans to get out of this chamber without defeating the 6th summoning since he wanted to get his hands on those legendary grade items, which could rapidly increase his evolution to higher levels.
As for the 7th summoning…he smiled inwardly, thinking about it.
Duncan Doru didn’t say anything anymore as he stepped back while the others were shaking their heads in disbelief, thinking the royal consort had no fear at all. Despite coming so far, instead of being afraid to lose what he could possibly gain, he was looking forward to risking it all and earning the potential rewards.
“Send the next one, dear chamber. Let’s see what you got for me next,” Asher said as the rune circle lit up with a dark light, ready to summon the 6th and second last spirit…the one which proved to be a nightmare for even the strongest in the kingdom.